Bisexual vs. Pansexual: What's The Difference? [CC]

Hello Internet, my name is Luxander and today we are going to delve into the

difference

between

bisexual

and

pansexual

. I've noticed there's a bit of confusion on this topic about why you would call yourself

pansexual

when

bisexual

is an available term, especially for those of you who have been following me since Jimmy's channel, "Mr. Atheist." Jimmy and I identify as pansexual, so I wanted to talk about the reasons for that and how it's different from being bisexual. There are also a couple more obscure terms that I want to cover in this video, but we'll get to that in a minute.

But because there are so many nuances to this topic (this is a pretty high-level discussion) I may not have the most perfect explanations for things and a lot of these labels are really personal to people, so they could mean something different. for them. An individual. I'll just try to give an overview of

what

they tend to mean. So, bisexual is the most common term we have for people who are attracted to people of more than one gender. However, it is a mistake to think that bi means "men and women." That's not

what

most people these days mean when they say they're bisexual.

There may be some people who identify as bi who want to exclusively say, "I'm attracted to both men and women and no one outside of that," but I think that's not common anymore. The way I heard it explained is that bi in this case, when you use bi, it means two things, it means "I'm attracted to the same gender as me and other genders." The term bisexual is not intended to exclude trans or non-binary people. Again, there may be some people who say it that way, but bisexuality in general as a concept is not transphobic. And since bisexual is the term that has existed the most historically, as people grew up with the term bisexual and it is the most common word in the lexicon, it has also become an umbrella term for all of these different ways that you may feel. attracted more. of a genre.

Now that I've mentioned that it's kind of a catch-all term, I want to mention this meme that is Hannibal Buress on the Eric Andre Show, which has become probably one of the most charming memes on this topic that I've ever come across. seen. I smiled a lot when I saw it. For those of you just listening, that's two screenshots, in the screenshot above are the four flags for bisexual, omnisexual, pansexual, and polysexual. And in the bottom image there is some overlay text that says "these overlap broadly, but the distinction is important to some people and that's okay." I also mention this because it will be relevant at a time when I delve into the labels omnisexual and polysexual, but first!

Let's talk about pansexuals. When I was young, I started identifying as pansexual because I mistakenly believed that bi was exclusionary for trans people, but as we just discussed, that's not a correct interpretation, so here's what pansexual really means. Pan refers to being attracted to people of any gender, regardless of their gender. Many times you'll see memes that say "hearts, not parts" because it's more about the person you're attracted to than their gender. Essentially, it means that gender doesn't play a big role in your attraction to people, you are attracted to the person and their gender may be part of who they are as a human being, but it's not what you focus on. .

And some people, when they say they're bisexual, they mean something closer to the definition of pansexual, but again, this term has a historical meaning, bisexual, there was a bisexual community in the '70s and '80s, so people grew up with that. It's a politically significant term for many of them, but ultimately it's okay for people to identify with whatever label they think best suits them. It doesn't matter exactly what the specific words mean because a lot of it overlaps widely, but again those distinctions are important to people and that's what's important. I will say that, personally, even though I've identified as pan for about ten years now, the whole "hearts, not parts" thing always seemed a little strange to me because, to me, a person's gender *is* a motivation. factor in my attraction to them, it just so happens that no matter what their gender is, I'm attracted to people of any gender, but, yes, parts, please parts.

Which I think is a good segue into one of the other terms we'll be discussing today. I think I may have found a more accurate identity label today. As with everything, this is still a learning and growing process, even for me, after about 10 years of identifying as pansexual, I may have found a more specific label that more accurately represents how I really feel. This term is omnisexual, which actually overlaps a lot with pansexual, but some of the things I was reading indicated that that distinction I have of, oh, no, your gender is part of why I'm attracted to you.

I enjoy the parts associated with you. So omnisexual seems to basically mean that you're attracted to people of any gender, but their gender *is* a factor in how and why you're attracted to them. It just so happens that you can be attracted to anyone of any gender, but it's not irrelevant, or it's not "regardless of gender" like pansexual is, but again, these two labels are very close to each other. So yes, I think I'm omnisexual, but I'll probably continue to use the label pansexual because, like with people who identify as bisexual, pan is becoming a more understood term and is more useful when I communicate.

And the fact that communication is a two-way street is the reason I haven't re-identified as bisexual (I did when I was younger) because to me it seems like when you're communicating with someone, if it's someone out From the community, if you say bi, what most people are going to hear is "I'm attracted to men and women" and I don't want to give that impression. So I've stuck with pansexual over the years because it seems like it's a way to communicate that I'm attracted to anyone of any gender and it doesn't create this false idea of ​​a binary in people's minds when I say it. .

And the last term I want to discuss is polysexual. This is not the same as polyamorous. Polyamorous is when you have a relationship style that includes having multiple relationships at varying degrees of intimacy with more than one person, but that's not an orientation label we're talking about right now. Polysexual simply means that you are attracted to two or more genders, but this may not mean the same as it does for other identity labels. For example, a polysexual person might be attracted to women and non-binary people. So they are attracted to two or more genders, but they are not regardless of gender and they are not men and women.

As you can see, many of these labels have some kind of overlapping meaning, but there are a lot of very high-level nuanced distinctions between them and I hope to be able to talk about the different reasons why I identify with certain labels and not others. These may make you understand why people may choose to be a little more specific with their identity labels rather than simply opting for the broader general label of bisexual. So to summarize, bisexual means that you are attracted to the same gender as you and other genders. Pansexual means that you are attracted to people regardless of their gender.

Omnisexual means that you are attracted to people of any gender but their gender *is* a factor for you. And polysexual means that you are attracted to two or more genders and is not exactly the same definition as the other terms we have discussed. I hope that has clarified things a little for you. If you have any additional questions, feel free to leave them in the comments or if you have any corrections that you want to let me know, you can also let me know in the comments. I really appreciate you seeing me, again, I hope this helped some.

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